Book says Hillary talks to dead

First lady acknowledged'imaginary' chats.

June 22, 1996
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton held
imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma
Gandhi as a therapeutic release, according to a new book
written by Bob Woodward, says a report in Sunday's edition of
The Chicago Sun-Times.

The first lady declined a personal adviser's suggestion that
she address Jesus Christ, however, because it would be "too
personal," according to Woodward's book, "The Choice."

The book, which is still to be published, takes a
behind-the-scenes look at the Clintons, as well as Bob and
Elizabeth Dole.

Woodward says the adviser was Jean Houston, co-director of
the Foundation for Mind Research, which he describes as a
group that studies the psychic experience and altered and
expanded consciousness.

The book portrays Houston as an influential adviser who urged
Mrs. Clinton to write her book, "It Takes a Village and Other
Lessons Children Teach Us," and in the process "virtually
moved into the White House" for days at a time to help with
revisions, the Sun-Times reported.

Woodward suggests the White House hoped to keep Mrs.
Clinton's relationship with Houston and her talks with the
dead a secret.

"Most people in the White House did not know about Hillary's
sessions with Houston. ... To some of the few who did, the
meetings could trigger politically damaging comparisons to
Nancy Reagan's use of astrology," Woodward wrote.

Mrs. Clinton's spokeswoman, Lisa Caputo, is quoted in the
Sun-Times as saying the first lady's interest in Houston is
no secret.

Woodward is an assistant managing editor at The Washington
Post. As a reporter, he helped break the Watergate scandal
with Carl Bernstein.

Mrs. Clinton herself wrote about her imaginary conversations
with Eleanor Roosevelt in her June 10 column. She said she
talked to Roosevelt about the role of a first lady.

"She usually responds by telling me to buck up, or at least
to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros," Mrs. Clinton wrote.

In the column, she described Houston as an expert on
philosophy and mythology. "(Houston) has shared her views
with me on everything from the ancient Greeks to the lives of
women and children on Bangladesh," she wrote.

Mrs. Clinton also acknowledged her relationship with Bateson.

"She and I have spent hours discussing the ways in which
women in different societies attempt to fulfill their
responsibilities to their families, jobs and communities,"
Mrs. Clinton wrote.